Protect Yourself From Tech Support Scams
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July 29, 2020
Protect Yourself From Tech Support Scams
Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary
technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a
Microsoft Agent or
Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an
official
Microsoft global customer service number.
I am running vista ultimate SP2 on Dell Latitude E6500 (Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz P8700, 4GB RAM).
I have been facing very annoying problem which the system freezes very short period time (less than 2 sec) continuously.
This problem is unbearable when I play any media files. The video and audio playback keeps freezing.
Not only the media files but also the entire system has this problem. Even when I move the cursor around on the screen, I can see it does not move smoothly due to this problem. I updated the OS to the most recent version and since it is new computer, I have
not installed anything other than few computational pakages and acrobat reader.
Can any one help me on this as soon as possible?
Since you have a fairly clean install I would skip down to the driver section here and update all my main
drivers at Dell and the various device makers. Also look for BIOS and software updates.
Be careful as a lot of those programs and services actually need to run and often removing a few
does little to speed the machine while making the machine less friendly to use.
To see all that is loading bootup - wait a few minutes without doing anything - then Right Click TaskBar -
Task Manager - take a look at Appplications - Processes - Services - this is a quick reference (if you have
a little box on Lower Left - Show for All Users then check that).
A quick check to see which are loading is Method 2 there - using MSCONFIG then post a list of those here.
Method 1 using Windows Defender will tell you more specific information about each program.
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This is a little more complex though you might have a few services running you can do without.
Be careful as disabling a service can impact the ability of other services to run and cause issues
down the road.
Also some programs add services which might not really need to be starting automatically. You can
often put these type services on Manual to reduce their impact on performance.
To see these compare those in Start - type in Search box -> Services find at top Right Click on it RUN AS ADMIN
to those in the default of Vista as listed here by BlackViper. Ignore and that are on Disabled (which do not run) or
Manual (which run only on demand) - for any Automatic or Automatic Delated Start you can post those in here if
you need help deciding if you need to run them. A few of those could be set to Stop and Manual so the calling program
can run them as needed.
BlackViper also makes some tweaks to the default windows services however I would not do those unless you
really understand the total significance of changing a default service. So use it as a tool to compare.
These are some tools which will help in the future as you gain experience though the above methods will do what
you need done for now.
Window Watcher - Free - Do you know what's running on your computer? Maybe not. The Window Watcher tells all,
reporting every window created by every running program, whether the window is visible or not.
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptwinwatch.asp
Process Explorer - Free - Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open, which DLLs
they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each process. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
Autoruns - Free - See what programs are configured to startup automatically when your system boots and you
login. Autoruns also shows you the full list of Registry and file locations where applications can configure auto-
start settings. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
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Another thing that help performance is updated drivers - Vista loves updated drivers.
This is my generic how to for proper driver updates :
For Drivers check System Maker as fallbacks and Device Maker's which are the most current.
Control Panel - Device Manager - Display Adapter - write down the make and complete model of your
video adapter - double click - Driver's tab - write down the version info. Now click UPdate Driver (this
may not do anything as MS is far behind certifying drivers) - then Right Click - Uninstall - REBOOT
this will refresh the driver stack.
Repeat that for Network - Network Card (NIC), Wifi, Sound, Mouse and Keyboard if 3rd party with their
own software and drivers and any other major device drivers you have.
Now go to System Maker's site (Dell, HP, Toshiba as examples) (as rollback) and then Device Maker's site
(Realtek, Intel, Nvidia, ATI as examples) and get their latest versions. (Look for BIOS, Chipset and software
updates at System Maker's site while there.)
Download - SAVE - go to where you put them - Right Click - RUN AD ADMIN - REBOOT after each installation.
Always check in Device Manager - Drivers tab to be sure the version you are installing actually shows up. This
is because some drivers rollback before the latest is installed (sound drivers particularly do this) so install a
driver - reboot - check to be sure it is installed and repeat as needed.
Repeat at Device Makers - BTW at Device Makers DO NOT RUN THEIR SCANNER - check manually by model.
If you update drivers manually then it is a good idea to disable Driver Installations in Windows Updates,
this leaves Windows Updates ON however it will not install drivers which will usually be older and cause
issues. If Updates suggests a new driver then HIDE it (Right Click on it) and then go look for new ones
manually if you wish.